Duvel

While I was wandering slightly jet lag-impaired through our local supermarket I found this in the freezer section. I am a huge fan of the underused cuts of any animal, so this looked interesting. First thing that came to mind was simply to cube and braise with red wine and juniper berries. Will be pleasing, yet boring. Maybe curing with juniper berries, allspice and pink salt and then SV to make some sort of "corned venison" ... Do you have any ideas what to do to make it different to - say - beef ribs ? Of course tried & true recipes are also welcome

I second that ... what a great idea! Recipe, pleeeeaaase

I like Fevertree "Slimline" tonic - no sweetener, just a bit of Fructose (not HFCS). Very good and makes excellent G&T ...

How to finish a day featuring St. Paul's basilica and the Sistines Chapel ? Pizza al Taglio Specifically at Boncis Pizzarium, close to Vatican City. Bonci has his classics and some reinterpretations with a twist. We chose: Fried aubergine (nothing beats that for me) Spinach & Shiitake (with a mushroom garlic mousseline instead of a tomato sauce and sharp pecorino) Yellow zucchini with cured pork neck (this was perfect - the zucchini super sweet and the pork neck salty and as fatty as guanciale. My favourite) Onion and smoked pecorino (my wife's favourite) Eaten just in front of the shop with a nice artisanal beer. (On a side note: my wife had to stop me to buy my share of lovely different pizza flours the sell as well ...)

A quick porchetta sandwich before visiting Vatican City at Angrypig Porchetteria. I chose the one with fried aubergine slices, which added to the meatiness of the pork nicely. It was good, but not life changing. At 6 Euros a decent snack ...

Will do ... in a separate thread. We attended a wedding and spend some days around the happy occasion sampling the food and the scenery. I'll put a mini food blog together once I am back in HK

A brief (3 days) stop-over in Rome on the way back from Sardinia to Hong Kong ... Dinner in a non-described Trattoria in the Monti neighbourhood: Braised lamb intestines with artichokes. Well, all for me Roasted Guinea fowl with rosemary and olives. Very tender, very flavourful. Homemade pasta with dried tomatoes, olives and wild fennel. Grated young Pecorino. Excellent. Plenty of cheap & tasty house wine with it. Tagliatelle with Ragu for the little one .. Followed by local Gelato and for yours truly a glass of Maker's Mark in the rental apartment with a view. Good times ...

I lived 2.5 years in Japan after graduation and detested raw uni every single time I tried it. Literally the last week there I took my wife out for a farewell dinner in Tokyo, where I had the most amazing uni experience. Turns out I really love that stuff, but it has to be highest quality and most of all fresh ...

Yuzukosho - one of my favourite condiments. So underrated, maybe because so little known. Fantastic on grilled fatty pork as well ...

Impressive ... I think that would sustain our dragonboat team for one season. Maybe you can schedule your next visit to HK in the beginning of next season

Will it keep until Dragonboat day ?

First things that come to mind would be: Fish tacos: prepare fresh wheat tortillas from scratch and fry them in a hot pan. Pico de gallo with seasonal cucumber, tomato. Fish could be any regular white fish, fried or for a more seasonal & local touch either katsuo no tataki or unagi. Nepalese pumpkin momos: Roast kabocha, mix with lightly butter-fried spices and fold in some peas or maybe chopped edamame. Fill into store-bought Gyoza wrappers and fry up. Make a raita with seasonal cucumber and cold youghurt. Dessert: make caramel popcorn from scratch and serve over store-bought vanilla ice cream. Quick and easy ...

Looks great, HC! Do you notice an effect from the buttermilk soak on the squid? I am always struggling whether pretreatment of squid is actually effective or not ...

There is no poaching liquid - I suggested merely how to get silky tender chicken breasts via SV. For a more "Hainanese" touch you may add ginger, dried ginger, scallions, etc. (in moderation) amd just experiment ...

I remember the first time I had green Sichuan peppercorns in a sauce for steamed river fish in a Yunnan restaurant in Beijing. I can still vividly recall what it did yo my tastebuds - truly envy you for being able to have that experience at your fingertips !

Tomorrow is the first Dragon Boat race of this season. To sustain ourselves during the day there is a ongoing potluck, and so today I prepared two loaves (?) of Leberkäse - one traditional and one "Pizza" with olives, red peppers and cheese cubes baked in. And for quality check I had a "LKW" (Leberkäseweck) with the tradional one, fresh from the oven with extra-hot Löwensenf. Heaven !

Today lazy Sunday ! "Porchetta tonnata" - pork collar, SV 24h @ 135F, brushed with a mixture of ghee and reduced pork stock, then seared on a hot grill. Sliced thinly and served with a regular Tonnato sauce, with black olives subbing for the capers ... Followed by a Chuck eye roll, SV 24h @ 135F, then brushed with liquid smoke and seared on a hot grill (Groundhog day moment ). Served with creamed kale and oven fries. And a Duvel (looming in the background) ...

Maybe offset with some Piementos de Padron ?

Found this one yesterday night in a convenience store in Chengdu. Will try maybe today (after an encouragement beer or two ...).

I recently had - as part of a full banquet - a dish of soft tofu cubes, maybe 1.5" side length, hollowed out a bit and stuffed with minced meat and dried mushrooms. They were dusted with starch, broiled on one side before being inverted onto a bed of sliced onions. Broiled again until well browned and the onions were done. Some soy sauce was drizzled over and I guess there was a bit of sugar added, though the onions might have been sweet enough. It was truly excellent (and I asked my host to inquire the preparation, which you read above).

Yup ... I am a very happy camper to go there every couple of weeks. They have now nine locations over town While living in Taiwan I went to their original shop several times. They always had some guys (apprentices) there learning how to pleat the XLB ... with no less than 18 pleats, as they advertise. Wouldn't mind to take a class there, either...

Ha ! At least the German ones have been designed to be eaten in the absence of additional water and/or any heat source, if required. So straight out of the pack they are "ready to eat" (though they gastronomic value might suffer a tiny bit )...

In my childhood my father would take me once a year to the "open days" of the German army garrison in the next larger town. It was always fun for a kid, because you could see live helicopters, tanks and all kinds of weird equipment (like a automated bridge building tank). For my father, who had to spend two years of then compulsory army service, it was all about memories - the good and the bad. He was always excited about the food you could have there - actually every year the same pea soup with sausage. And of course we always took one or two EPa's (the German MRE) home, for nostalgic purposes. I can't say it was a memorable meal tastewise. Basically canned food, together with a array of butter, charcuteries and jams for the dried bread in the pack. My highlight was the little dry-fuel burner that was included and I liked to have the meal prepared outside on the terrace, which resulted usually in a more cold-and-burned pasta in tomato sauce. But it was a bit of an adventure and I liked it. When I checked the Wikipedia entry on the German MRE's today (thanks) memories came back and funny enough, not much seems to have changed in the last 30 years, when it comes to the nutrition of the German armed forces (German "Einmannpackung" at Wikipedia). I thus agree to your conclusion "not bad at all", but partially out of sentimental reasons ...

Thanks ! I use this brand, a little less than a teaspoon for a 600 gr piece of meat (weight before curing).

It works pretty well with pork neck steaks as well. Bit higher temp for the SV and you end up with a moist & tender sweet ham-style product.